Let Mama Back on the Train
“Don’t blame us!” That’s a common refrain from my parents when one of their offspring recounts the connection between a childhood experience and a current woe. According to an interesting piece by Brian Boutwell, they might have a point: “I want you to consider the possibility that your parents did not shape you as a person. Despite how it feels, your mother and father (or whoever raised you) likely imprinted almost nothing on your personality that has persisted into adulthood. Pause for a minute and let that heresy wash across your synapses.” Why parenting may not matter. I’m not sure how much of this article I agree with, but it’s quickly become my kids’ favorite bedtime story.
+ There’s no doubt that our genes affect our kids. But we might also be passing down our experiences. Here’s Carl Zimmer in the NYT: “Scientists were investigating a tantalizing but controversial hypothesis: that a man’s experiences can alter his sperm, and that those changes in turn may alter his children.”
Chicago Tribulations
“When suspicion and hostility is allowed to fester, it can erupt into unrest.” So said Attorney General Loretta Lynch as she announced that the Justice Department is opening up an investigation of the Chicago Police Department. (Follow the Video is the new Follow the Money.)
The Talking Wounded
A shooting is covered by the media and we generally follow a series of public rituals: An urgent (and often errant) race for the facts. A counting of the dead. A close following of law enforcement’s efforts. A series of heated political debates. But here’s something we don’t like to focus on: The wounded. They are an important part of the story, but for obvious reasons, we tend to look away. Let’s change that with Eli Saslow’s WaPo piece: A Survivor’s Life. “She had been the youngest one shot on just her fourth day of college, and she was also one of the survivors in the worst shape: Lung punctured. Kidney pierced. Ribs cracked. Nerves compressed. Stomach stapled. Abdominals torn.” (And as you might imagine, she was called “Very lucky, considering…”)
+ “From 2001 to 2013, 1,367 men in military service suffered wounds to the genitals in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense Trauma Registry.” If we’re gonna talk about war, let’s talk about war: Penis Transplants Being Planned to Help Wounded Troops.
Saint, Elsewhere
Here’s a stat to consider: “It’s 2015, and more than 20 million people are still held in some form of slavery all over the world.” Vanity Fair’s William Langewiesche went to Brazil to answer a question: Can a French Friar End the 21st-Century Slave Trade? “He is not saintly. He grows impatient regularly, and quite often swears. He drinks and smokes, though in moderation. Recently I discovered that he has a taste for fast driving.”
The Year We Snapped
Few things tell a story quite like a photo. And few people curate photos as well as Alan Taylor. So you don’t want to miss InFocus’ look at the top 25 news photos of 2015.
+ And another excellent collection: AP Photos top 100 news images of 2015.
+ Some of the year’s defining images have been of China’s incredible air pollution. Beijing just issued its first red smog alert. (We’re talking about schools being closed and construction projects being halted.)
Show Some Spine
“The quantity of books in one’s home was the most important predictor of reading performance. The greatest effect was seen in libraries of about 100 books, which resulted in approximately 1.5 extra years of grade-level reading performance.” Maybe loading their Kindles isn’t enough. Teddy Wayne in the NYT on the importance of lining your shelves with books.
+ The Guardian: “From Kapuscinski to Knausgaard, from Mantel to Macfarlane, more and more writers are challenging the border between fiction and nonfiction.” (Political pundits have been doing this for years.)
+ Quartz on the books that most critics seem to agree are the best of 2015.
The Butterfly Effect
Kendrick Lamar’s album To Pimp a Butterfly led the way as Grammy nominations were announced on Monday. Here are all the nominees.
+ Rolling Stone’s is out with their list of the 50 best albums of 2015. If you don’t have time to listen to 50 albums (much less read about them) use this direct link to the top six, including Lamar at number one: “Musically, lyrically and emotionally, Kendrick Lamar’s third album is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.”
Getting with the Crimes
“But our newfound propensity for trusting strangers from the internet has also enabled a new approach to crime. You don’t have to break into someone’s home to rob them anymore. You can just book it for a night on Airbnb.” (That does seem more convenient.) Fusion on how criminals use Uber, Tinder and Airbnb
A Shire Calling
“If the images below are in fact the ones forming the basis of this Turkish lawsuit, we can state categorically: none of them feature the character known as Gollum.” Peter Jackson decided to chime in on a very strange legal case in Turkey “in which a doctor is accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by comparing him to Gollum.”
Bottom of the News
“All the love as always. H.” That may not seem like much of a message, but it was enough to earn Harry Styles the top tweet of the year. Here’s a look at the rest. And here’s a list of the most Instagrammed places in the world.
+ As we enter its second night, Vox provides a look at 7 surprising things everyone should know about Hanukkah. I’ll try to give you one Hanukkah present each day. For day one, you get a menorah bong (best enjoyed on the eighth night). And for day two, the Dr. Dreidel.
+ Streaming video services like Netflix now account for 70% of Internet traffic in North America. In other words, we’ve replaced watching TV with watching TV.
